title: Employing in-vivo molecular imaging in simulating and validating tumor growth.
abstract: During the last decades, especially via the EU initiative related to the Virtual Physiological Human, significant progress has been made in advancing "in-silico" computational models to produce accurate and reliable tumor growth simulations. However, currently most attempts to validate the outcome of the models are either done in-vitro or ex-vivo after tumor resection. In this work, we incorporate information provided by fluorescence molecular tomography performed in-vivo into a mathematical model that describes tumor growth. The outcome is validated against tumor evolution snapshots captured in-vivo using advanced molecular probes in laboratory animals. The simulations are inline with the actual in-vivo growth and although alternative modeling parameters can lead to similar results challenging for additional microscopic information and imaging modalities to drive the in-silico models, they all show that hypoxia plays a dominant role in the evolution of the tumor under study.
authors.forename: Eleftheria
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tzamali
authors.forename: Rosy
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Favicchio
authors.forename: Alexandros
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Roniotis
authors.forename: Georgios
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tzedakis
authors.forename: Giorgos
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Grekas
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ripoll
authors.forename: Kostas
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Marias
authors.forename: Giannis
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zacharakis
authors.forename: Vangelis
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Sakkalis
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005453:Fluorescence; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D057054:Molecular Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results